|
In the late '80s and early '90s, many games laid claim to being 'arcade perfect'. The term was worn with a badge of honour and helped make many of the home conversions instantly desirable. Unfortunately, the phrase was frequently misused and as such became synonymous with rather lacklustre imitations.Once R-Type and, later on, Street Fighter 2 appeared on home consoles, things began to change for the better: almost perfect versions of the latest arcade games finally became a reality. In the middle of all this were the arcade lightgun games such as House of the Dead, Virtua Cop and Time Crisis. The size of the cabinets - and the gun peripherals necessary - made it difficult for accurate home conversions to do the genre justice and it was only on the Dreamcast that the first truly perfect lightgun game conversion appeared: House of the Dead 2. Released with its own gun, it made the arcade experience replicable in the home. Since then, however, lightgun games on home consoles have just about disappeared from the release schedules.
It’s debatable whether or not Nintendo designed the Wii with any thought to re-igniting the lightgun-shooter genre; but, deliberate or not, developers have been keen to exploit the Wii’s unique control method and it's easy to see why when using the Wiimote. After the sublime Umbrella Chronicles, the relatively enjoyable Link’s Crossbow Training, and the fun but short-lived Ghost Squad, Sega now brings us The House of the Dead 2 and 3.
Anyone familiar with the HOTD series will be forgivably misty-eyed when loading this game. HOTD 2 was an arcade standout title and a game that took the conventions of its predecessor and improved on it in just about every way. The game begins with one or two players each assuming the guiseof one of two agents of the AMS: a secret organisation for just such an occasion. Arriving in Venice, our heroes find the city overrun with zombies and creatures of every description, shape and size. The players have to work their way through the streets and canals, taking out the bad guys as they go.
The most surprising thing about HOTD2, whether for veterans who haven’t played it for a while or for complete newbies, is just how tough it is to play. Armed only with a pistol, aiming has to be consistently spot-on and lightning quick reactions are necessary to make any amount of progress. Learning the patterns of enemy attacks and remembering when and where they will pop up from is essential for successful completion of the game. The bosses can also be very tough to beat if you don’t have your wits about you. It certainly increases the game’s longevity, but may put-off less determined players. The upside of this being that it helps to ramp up the tension, and players are constantly aware that any missed shots could prove fatal. There are also multiple routes to discover, depending on your actions, which also adds to the replay value.
As an arcade conversion, the game is subject to the typical flaws: it isn’t very long and sometimes it’s too tempting to use the extra credits to get to the end. The game does try to adapt to this by limiting the number of credits initially available, with extra ones only appearing after several plays. There’s also a boss mode, training missions and an original mode, where players can use extra items, more credits and additional firepower. It’s a nice touch but not enough to hold the player's interest after seeing the end credits several times.
Making-up the second part of this deadly duo is HOTD 3, which could best be described as HOTD 2 for casual gamers. It’s the same story as before, with zombies and myriad creatures of the dead on the rampage. However, the levels are now mainly confined to indoor spaces, and, although multiple paths are still available, they are much less prevalent than in HOTD2. Instead of a pistol, players are now armed with a shotgun, and its blast radius is far wider. Pointing at anywhere on the screen and reeling off a string of bullets will, more often than not, prove successful. Although this makes the game more accessible, it detracts from the tension and often makes it too easy. The bosses are fairly tricky, but even they will not provide an extended challenge.
Players are graded at the end of each level based on their completion time, accuracy, speed of kills, etc. The only extras included are a 'time-attack' mode and an 'extreme' mode, which is much harder, but includes a melee attack to defend the player from the on-rushing hordes. The graphics are much-improved from HOTD2, but as the game is several years old, they still look pretty ordinary and also suffer from some frame-rate issues.
As both games are arcade conversions, it seems churlish to complain about their obvious brevity. However, Sega has done little to expand on this with minimal effort expended on increasing their longevity through additional modes or extra features. As they had already made the effort with Ghost Squad, it makes this compilation seem even more of a rushed release. There's also the rather baffling decision not to include the original HOTD, even as a bonus. As this is a budget-priced release, it represents decent value for money, despite the fact that it's easy to see pretty much everything both games have to offer in little more than an hour's play. It's great fun in the two-player mode and, like any other lightgun game, is a good laugh for post-pub blasting. It's just a shame that Sega didn't make more of an effort with this release. |
